Swedish Windows Security User Group

Cybersecurity professionals find themselves in high demand as organizations worldwide continue to grapple with how to secure millions of remote workers. James Turner is an industry analyst at CISO Lens and served as an adjudicator from 2017 to 2019 for the Australian government’s cyber war games: Operation Tsunami. In this episode of Afternoon Cyber Tea, James and I talk about how the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the critical need for cooperation across the cybersecurity industry, as well as the need for strengthening communication between governments and private organizations.

Our discussion really examines how the pandemic has pushed organizations toward greater cost efficiencies and a new mainstreaming of cybersecurity—democratizing the language and tools to make it part of everyone’s “9 to 5” experience.

“Everyone has a plan until they get hit in the face,” as James puts it. “Ransomware is off the hook—one organization just got hit with a 10 million dollar ransom. That’s more than the average Australian or New Zealand organization spends on security in a year.”

If the old saying that every crisis presents an opportunity holds true, James sees the pandemic as a tremendous catalyst for better information sharing amid budget cuts and a fragmented workforce. “The security operating centers at large banks are on speed-dial with each other because the attack against Company A hits Company B the next day. No organization, or even an entire country, can do it all by themselves.”

During our talk, we also touch on how the pandemic has pushed security professionals to look at new ways of optimizing delivery, such as utilizing an integrated security solution rather than an expensive niche product. “It’s given businesses a new appreciation for automatic patching,” James recounts. “My group of CISOs is discussing installing agents on personal devices; the legalities and logistics around that. Budgets are becoming an issue; so, I’m encouraging them to think like startups—get creative.”

James and I also examine how security professionals need to do a better job of evangelizing across the entire IT sector, including developing a ground-level understanding of your own organization’s business units. Cybersecurity will only be truly effective when it’s no longer part of an org chart but simply part of everyone’s job.

To hear my complete conversation with James Turner, listen to the full episode.

What’s next

In this ongoing podcast series, I talk with cybersecurity influencers about the evolving threat landscape and explore the promise of systems powered by AI, IoT, and other emerging tech. In every episode, we’ll look at empowering people and organizations to create a more secure, productive digital environment.

Listen to Afternoon Cyber Tea with Ann Johnson on:

• Apple Podcasts: You can also download the episode by clicking the Episode Website link.
• Podcast One: Includes the option to subscribe, so you’re notified as soon as new episodes are available.
• CISO Spotlight page: Listen alongside our CISO Spotlight episodes, where customers and security experts discuss similar topics such as Zero Trust, compliance, going passwordless, and more.

In the meantime, bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us at @MSFTSecurity for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity. Or reach out to me on LinkedIn or Twitter if you have guest or topic suggestions.

The post Afternoon Cyber Tea: Evaluating individual and organizational cyber risk in a pandemic appeared first on Microsoft Security.

Much of our everyday life has moved online with the pandemic continuing to play a role in how we work and communicate with others. This migration has meant that security and privacy continue to remain top-of-mind for both security professionals and those who may not have given these cyber issues a second thought once before.

In this episode of Afternoon Cyber Tea, I had a chance to talk about this impact with cybersecurity expert Theresa Payton, CEO of Fortalice Solutions and co-founder of Dark Cubed.

In our discussion, we focus on Theresa’s experience with election security, social engineering, and about her book “Manipulated: Inside the Cyberwar to Hijack Elections and Distort the Truth.” We also look at how the cyber operatives behind misinformation campaigns choose their targets, and how digital empathy and human-centered design can help combat cybercrime.

“Nation-state hackers invade social issues—such as fracking, elections, or vaccinations—all while posing as Americans,” Theresa explains. She recounts how, in researching her book, she found herself speaking to a group of Macedonian hackers who targeted the 2016 election, only to discover the hackers were apolitical. “We’re pro-capitalism,” they told her, explaining how they’d created detailed models that showed how much revenue they could earn by pushing certain candidates rather than others.

“Microsoft was one of the early leaders in offering free tools to help states improve their voting technology. They looked at something that could be a revenue generator, then chose to make it about the public good instead.”—Theresa Payton, CEO of Fortalice Solutions and co-founder of Dark Cubed

During our conversation, we talk about how social engineering attacks are often made easier by our own trusting natures, with vacation photos, birthdays, and other personal content providing the raw data hackers rely on. Since privacy settings for social media usually require users to opt-in, many users are unknowingly laying their online life out like a buffet for hackers. And, since many people don’t read the terms of service, they often have no idea what data is being collected, or what it’s being used for. Theresa mentions a study done by MIT researchers that found even anonymized data grabbed from phone records, credit card transactions, and mobile apps can be easily cross-referenced by zip code and gender to narrow the user’s identity to within just five people.

Theresa and I agree that people cannot be expected to be experts on cybersecurity or system designs, which is where digital empathy comes into play. As we get better at building security into systems, employees can be free to do what they were hired to do. “Microsoft has been leading the way in going passwordless,” Theresa says. “I’m excited that technology has finally caught up to our needs. Now we’ll only be limited by our own creative minds.”

Find out how Theresa went from working as a bank manager to handling cybersecurity at the George W. Bush White House and get some tips on how to protect yourself from social engineering schemes—listen to the full episode.

What’s next

In this ongoing podcast series, I talk with cybersecurity influencers about the evolving threat landscape and explore the promise of systems powered by AI, IoT) and other emerging tech. In every episode, we’ll look at how to empower people and organizations to create a more secure, productive digital environment.

Listen to Afternoon Cyber Tea with Ann Johnson on:

• Apple Podcasts: You can also download the episode by clicking the Episode Website link.
• Podcast One: Includes the option to subscribe—so you’re notified as soon as new episodes are available.
• CISO Spotlight page: Listen alongside our CISO Spotlight episodes, where customers and security experts discuss similar topics such as Zero Trust, compliance, going passwordless, and more.

In the meantime, bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us at @MSFTSecurity for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity. Or reach out to me on LinkedIn or Twitter if you have guest or topic suggestions.

The post Afternoon Cyber Tea: Privacy, the pandemic, and protecting our cyber future appeared first on Microsoft Security.

Every year the number and scale of cyberattacks grows. Marc Goodman, a global security strategist, futurist, and author of the book, Future Crimes: Everything is Connected, Everyone is Vulnerable, and What We Can Do About It, thinks a lot about how we got here and what it means, which is why he was invited to be the first guest on my podcast series, Afternoon Cyber Tea with Ann Johnson.

Marc has a long history in law enforcement, starting as a police officer in Los Angeles and more recently as a consultant to Interpol, The United Nations, NATO, the U.S. Federal Government, and local U.S. law enforcement. His background and experience give him a shrewd perspective on the threats that governments and businesses face now and in the future.

In our conversation, Marc and I discussed what drives cyberattack numbers to climb every year and why data is a risk factor. We also peered into the future and examined some of the threats that businesses and governments should begin preparing for now. Did you know that today the average household has at least 15 connected devices? That number is expected to rapidly grow to 50. We talked about what a truly connected world means for defenders. I really appreciate the way Marc was able to humanize the risks associated with the Internet of Things (IoT).

Most importantly we identified steps, such as Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and passwordless technology, that organizations can take to mitigate these threats. I hope you will take a moment to listen in on our conversation. Listen to the first episode of Afternoon Cyber Tea with Ann Johnson on Apple Podcasts or Podcast One.

What’s next

In this important cyber series, I’ll talk with cybersecurity influencers about trends shaping the threat landscape and explore the risk and promise of systems powered by artificial intelligence (AI), IoT, and other emerging tech.

You can listen to Afternoon Cyber Tea with Ann Johnson on:

• Apple Podcasts—You can also download the episode by clicking the Episode Website link.
• Podcast One—Includes option to subscribe, so you’re notified as soon as new episodes are available.
• CISO Spotlight page—Listen alongside our CISO Spotlight episodes where customers and security experts discuss similar topics such as Zero Trust, compliance, going passwordless, and more.

Also bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us at @MSFTSecurity for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity. Or reach out to me on LinkedIn or Twitter if you have guest or topic suggestions.

The post Afternoon Cyber Tea—The State of Cybersecurity: How did we get here? What does it mean? appeared first on Microsoft Security.